1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to equipment for use in slaughterhouses and, more specifically, to a tool for the separation of the hide of an animal from the associated carcass by severing the membranes connecting such hide and the flesh of the carcass.
2. Prior Art
Tools for de-hiding carcasses are, broadly, not new, for example, see U.S. Pat. No. 3,857,177 issued to this inventor. Other patents covering de-hiding tools are U.S. Pat. No. 3,435,522, issued Apr. 1, 1969, U.S. Pat. Ser. Nos. 4,368,560 and 3,570,120, issued Mar. 16, 1971 to Wetzel. In general, these tools have oppositely reciprocating blades, usually toothed. The blades are driven by an air motor at very high speeds equivalent to approximately 6500 rpm. To minimize the amount of waste material that tends to collect between the blades causing the tool to be unsanitary and inefficient, the blades are put under pressure by a wave spring which presses on one of the blades causing it to engage the other blade. As these blades reciprocate in opposite directions, each to the other, there is friction and wear on the wave spring which rides on the outer face of one of the blades. The wave spring becomes worn and fails rapidly under the high speed operating conditions that exist. Replacement of the wave spring is expensive and time consuming and, with the devices of the prior art, must occur quite frequently.
Another characteristic of such air driven de-hiding tools is that the speed of blade reciprocation varies widely along the distribution line of the compressed air which operates these tools. Also, an individual tool may exhibit less than optimum operating speed as a result of internal friction. The operator becomes less efficient and more fatigued and the production line suffers if the speed of the tool is too slow. Tearing of the hide may result so that not only is the output of each operator down but the quality of the production is also seriously reduced.
It is an object of this invention to overcome the various difficulties of the prior art tools.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a de-hiding tool which has minimum breakdowns and long time periods between disassembly for maintenance purposes.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a de-hiding tool in which each operator may adjust the speed of his de-hiding tool to the optimum point for the de-hiding operation in a convenient and efficient manner.